Aleph, UCLA Undergraduate Research Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Located at the heart of the Amazonian-Andean geobiological interface, Bolivia is uniquely situated with an ecologically diverse landscape, a politically active Indigenous population, and natural resources that attract foreign interest. As climate change mitigation gains international traction, Bolivia’s potential to provide lithium globally and hydropower regionally has prompted exploitation of the land by the Bolivian government. In a nation where the Indigenous majority has defined the rights of Mother Earth in its Constitution, the destructive nature of these projects calls attention to the novel issue of justifying environmental degradation with a promise to save the world from climate change. By examining primary and secondary sources, this paper explores the friction between development for sustainability and Indigenous environmental justice in Bolivia. In my investigation, I question whether investing in renewables that cause environmental degradation is inherently contradictory in the context of Bolivian Indigenous tradition. I consistently find that the methods of development and consultation for these projects are flawed. I suggest that a framework of temporal environmental justice is needed to fully understand this friction between environmental and climate justice.